Race to the Top - Statewide Longitudinal (Student) Data System

Reviewing some older blogs (not too hard since I've not posted in so long) I ran across an "orphan" - a blog promising a follow-up, but I never got around to writing. So I dug for updated info on the point I wanted to make in May 2011 about unfunded mandates in general, and Race To The Top specifically: Statewide Longitudinal Data System.

Ever heard of it? If your child has attended K-12 school in Rhode Island since around 2006, you child's information is in it.

It's now a pretty integral part of the Race To The Top (RTTT) education "grant" from the United Stated Department of Education. And it's been expanded since June 2011 to include Pre-K through 20. Yes, TWENTY - that's four years beyond college into the work force. RI Department of Education (RIDE), the RI Office of Higher Education RIOHE, and the RI Department of Labor and Training (RIDLT) are the three front organizations for this massive database.

Oh, by all means, review the grant narrative.

Now, if RIDE wanted to data-mine information about kids in K-12 and collect it in a grant-funded database, fine.

(Not fine, really - I hate government databases on people and really hate government databases on kids. But let's stick to the cost of government monitoring, not get sidetracked by the moral philosophy of government monitoring.)

But this is a longitudinal study. Meaning a study of the same subjects (cohort) over time. Meaning, for it to have meaning, it has to track the same kids - our kids - before, during, and after the "normal" education lifespan. From pre-Kindergarten to four-plus years after college graduation (or 8+ years after high school for kids who don't go to college). There's even a "Director of PK-20 Affairs" in the Rhode Island Office of Higher Education. (Janet Durfee-Hidalgo, with a 2011 salary listed at just under $90,000. Yup.)

My point? Several, actually. But for the purposes of this blog: Grants have a short life span. This database - by its very name and intention - does not.

So who do you think picks up the tab for the data mining, data entry, data security, data analysis, and data dissemination, not to mention equipment and software acquisition, media backup, maintenance, upgrades, and aaaaaaaaaaaaall those people, and the facilities to house it all for the other 15+ years after the grant money stops?

This Statewide Longitudinal (Student) Data System will become another unfunded mandate, along with all the other goodies tucked into the RTTT grant.

Knowledge gain? Oh, the government will know plenty about our kids. The real question is, how much fundamental knowledge will the kids gain?

Government finance 101: It's all your money.